379 research outputs found
Gender Variations of Physiological and Psychological Stress among Police Officers
This paper analyses the effect of gender on reported and perceived levels of stress through examination of both the physical and psychological indicators. It may be interesting to work with police data due to high stress levels among police officers and the fact that the work environment is male dominant (females are a minority). In our study we not only explore gender differences, but also whether job and private environmental factors such as effective cooperation between units, a higher trust in the work partner, a higher level of work-life-balance and home stability, and a higher level of interactional fairness, affect female and male officers differently. Using multivariate regression analysis of police officers we find that female officers are significantly more likely to report suffering from physical stress indicators than their male counterparts while no gender differences are observable in regards to psychological stress. Moreover, a higher level of trust and cooperation, and a higher level of interactional fairness at work are not able to absorb physical stress among female, while these factors have a strong impact on male officers. On the other hand, for both, female and male officers, work-life balance and stability at home have the tendency of reducing physical stress.Gender, Stress, Police Officers, Burnout, Work-life Balance, Justice
On the coexistence of cooperators, defectors and conditional cooperators in the multiplayer iterated Prisoner's Dilemma
Recent experimental evidence [Gruji\'c et al., PLoS ONE 5, e13749 (2010)] on
the spatial Prisoner's Dilemma suggests that players choosing to cooperate or
not on the basis of their previous action and the actions of their neighbors
coexist with steady defectors and cooperators. We here study the coexistence of
these three strategies in the multiplayer iterated Prisoner's Dilemma by means
of the replicator dynamics. We consider groups with n = 2, 3, 4 and 5 players
and compute the payoffs to every type of player as the limit of a Markov chain
where the transition probabilities between actions are found from the
corresponding strategies. We show that for group sizes up to n = 4 there exists
an interior point in which the three strategies coexist, the corresponding
basin of attraction decreasing with increasing number of players, whereas we
have not been able to locate such a point for n = 5. We analytically show that
in the infinite n limit no interior points can arise. We conclude by discussing
the implications of this theoretical approach on the behavior observed in
experiments.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, uses elsart.cl
If cooperation is likely punish mildly: Insights from economic experiments based on the snowdrift game
Punishment may deter antisocial behavior. Yet to punish is costly, and the
costs often do not offset the gains that are due to elevated levels of
cooperation. However, the effectiveness of punishment depends not only on how
costly it is, but also on the circumstances defining the social dilemma. Using
the snowdrift game as the basis, we have conducted a series of economic
experiments to determine whether severe punishment is more effective than mild
punishment. We have observed that severe punishment is not necessarily more
effective, even if the cost of punishment is identical in both cases. The
benefits of severe punishment become evident only under extremely adverse
conditions, when to cooperate is highly improbable in the absence of sanctions.
If cooperation is likely, mild punishment is not less effective and leads to
higher average payoffs, and is thus the much preferred alternative. Presented
results suggest that the positive effects of punishment stem not only from
imposed fines, but may also have a psychological background. Small fines can do
wonders in motivating us to chose cooperation over defection, but without the
paralyzing effect that may be brought about by large fines. The later should be
utilized only when absolutely necessary.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures; accepted for publication in PLoS ON
Visible inequality breeds more inequality
Experiments suggest that when people can see wealth inequality in their social network, this propels further inequality through reduced cooperation and reduced social connectivity. News & Views comment on Nishi et al, Nature 526, 2015, p. 426-429
Combining ‘‘real effort’’ with induced effort costs: the ball-catching task
We introduce the “ball-catching task”, a novel computerized task, which combines a tangible action (“catching balls”) with induced material cost of effort. The central feature of the ball-catching task is that it allows researchers to manipulate the cost of effort function as well as the production function, which permits quantitative predictions on effort provision. In an experiment with piece-rate incentives we find that the comparative static and the point predictions on effort provision are remarkably accurate. We also present experimental findings from three classic experiments, namely, team production, gift exchange and tournament, using the task. All of the results are closely in line with the stylized facts from experiments using purely induced values. We conclude that the ball-catching task combines the advantages of real effort tasks with the use of induced values, which is useful for theory-testing purposes as well as for applications
Joint field experiments for comparisons of measuring methods of photosynthetic production
During the 1st GAP Workshop at Konstanz in April 1982 comparative measurements of phytoplankton primary production by several techniques were conducted simultaneously at an offshore station in Lake Konstanz and an experimental algal pond. Suspended glass bottle exposure techniques using 14C and 13C uptake gave Pz (mg C m−3 h−1) values which varied considerably near-surface, but estimates of areal rates for the euphotic zone ΣPcu(mg C m−3 h−1) which were reasonably close. In the lake, ΣPz, from a vertical tube exposure (with 14C uptake) was greater than rates derived for integrated bottle samples. The oxygen bottle method permitted a good estimate of compensation depth, corresponding to in situ growth studies. There were difficulties in direct comparison between O2 and carbon methods. Correlation between them for Pz was good in the lake but poor in the pond, both for suspended bottle and vertical tube methods. This series demonstrates that despite reasonable overall estimates, comparatively minor methodological differences in experimental technique can cause large variatio
Analysing and controlling the tax evasion dynamics via majority-vote model
Within the context of agent-based Monte-Carlo simulations, we study the
well-known majority-vote model (MVM) with noise applied to tax evasion on
simple square lattices, Voronoi-Delaunay random lattices, Barabasi-Albert
networks, and Erd\"os-R\'enyi random graphs. In the order to analyse and to
control the fluctuations for tax evasion in the economics model proposed by
Zaklan, MVM is applied in the neighborhod of the noise critical . The
Zaklan model had been studied recently using the equilibrium Ising model. Here
we show that the Zaklan model is robust and can be reproduced also through the
nonequilibrium MVM on various topologies.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, LAWNP'09, 200
Sustainable institutionalized punishment requires elimination of second-order free-riders
Although empirical and theoretical studies affirm that punishment can elevate
collaborative efforts, its emergence and stability remain elusive. By
peer-punishment the sanctioning is something an individual elects to do
depending on the strategies in its neighborhood. The consequences of
unsustainable efforts are therefore local. By pool-punishment, on the other
hand, where resources for sanctioning are committed in advance and at large,
the notion of sustainability has greater significance. In a population with
free-riders, punishers must be strong in numbers to keep the "punishment pool"
from emptying. Failure to do so renders the concept of institutionalized
sanctioning futile. We show that pool-punishment in structured populations is
sustainable, but only if second-order free-riders are sanctioned as well, and
to a such degree that they cannot prevail. A discontinuous phase transition
leads to an outbreak of sustainability when punishers subvert second-order
free-riders in the competition against defectors.Comment: 7 two-column pages, 3 figures; accepted for publication in Scientific
Report
Occasional errors can benefit coordination
The chances solving a problem that involves coordination between people are increased by introducing robotic players that sometimes make mistakes. This finding has implications for real-world coordination problems
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